Nbc`s Last All-star Hurrah To Feature Reagan

NBC has pulled out all the stops for Tuesday night`s All-Star Game, including the hiring of a former Iowa sportscaster by the name of Ronald Reagan as a special commentator for an inning.

That means this game will be different for all concerned, including veteran play-by-play man Vin Scully.

``I think the most special thing about this game is that it involves a former President of the United States,`` said Scully of the planned visit by Reagan. ``That makes it about as special as you can get.

``Basically, our main objective is to make things as comfortable and as pleasant for him as humanly possible. Like the All-Star Game itself, it`s just a wonderful moment, and we`re delighted to share it with him. So whatever he feels comfortable with is what we`ll do.``

But it won`t be play-by-play.

``That would be a little beyond the call,`` said Scully. ``I think what he will do is make some comments, maybe personal recollections and things of that nature. Not play-by-play.``

At least Scully and Reagan aren`t complete strangers.

``I have a very slight connection with him,`` Scully said. ``We were acquaintances in the neighborhood. And when he became President-elect in November of 1980, I was working for CBS and they always had the annual Thanksgiving Day football game. And we got the idea that maybe it would be kind of nice to do an interview with the President-elect just talking about his days as a sports announcer.

``So I went up to his house after they had worked out the details and we did about an 8-to-10-minute interview which was played at halftime of that Thanksgiving Day football game. And it was all warm, wonderful chit-chat. And he talked about his early days. It was marvelous, just wonderful. He`s a very pleasant man who loves sports. It was a very nice thing.``

``I don`t know when the President is going to show up,`` Seaver said. ``I assume that`s something Vinny will take control of. I think everyone will be more interested in listening to Ronald Reagan and his ideas about the ballgame rather than having the three of us chatter away. So I believe it`ll be between Vinny and Ronald Reagan. My participation will be very minimal.``

Part of the reason for NBC`s big blowout is that after more than 40 years of baseball coverage, this will be the network`s last big event. Oh, sure, NBC still will telecast the American and National League playoffs in the fall. But that coverage will be split among the network`s talent.

Starting next year, CBS will be paying more than $1 billion over four years for Major League Baseball, including the All-Star Game, playoffs and World Series.

Even for a newcomer like Seaver, that makes Tuesday night a special moment.

``It`s kind of the feeling at NBC that it`s the last show for a period of time,`` Seaver said. ``(But) I don`t think deep down in people`s hearts at NBC that they`re out of baseball forever. We haven`t approached the season this way. I doubt if we`ll approach the All-Star Game that way.``

Scully will be involved with his fourth All-Star Game since joining NBC in 1982, although his first All-Star broadcast was in 1954.

For Scully, this year`s game doesn`t necessarily mark a watershed.

``I`m a daily baseball person,`` said Scully, who joined the Dodgers`

broadcast team in 1950. ``For so many years, I would start and do some 30-odd exhibition games. Then I would do from 154 to 162 regular-season games. And then maybe do the playoffs, and the occasional year, the World Series.

``So there has been an avalanche of baseball games in my life. The All-Star Games, by their very nature of being glorious exhibitions, they`re kind of buried by all the games I do and all the games I see.

``I have always looked upon whatever I do with a tremendous degree of humility and gratefulness that I`ve been able to do one of them, never mind how many I`ve done. And if this is to be the last one, then so be it. I will miss the association with people at NBC in baseball, because we really did have a lot of fun. But it`s life. Things move on. I will not be overcome with grief or anything like that. It`ll be another game, and then Thursday I`ll be behind the microphone doing a Dodger-Cardinal game, God willing, and off we go again.``